The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Echinacea plant, botanically known as Echinacea purpurea, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Sweet342’.
The new Echinacea plant is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program is to develop new freely branching and relatively compact Echinacea plants with unique and attractive ray floret coloration.
The new Echinacea plant originated from an open-pollination in July, 2014 in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands of an unnamed seedling selection of Echinacea purpurea, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unknown selection of Echinacea purpurea as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Echinacea plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated open-pollination grown in a controlled greenhouse environment in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands in July, 2015.
Asexual reproduction of the new Echinacea plant by in vitro meristem culture in a controlled environment in Zuidwolde, The Netherlands since June, 2016 has shown that the unique features of this new Echinacea plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.